Save our fingerprints, our DNA, the kind of stuff we can’t see without fancy, high tech bifocals – is there anything more distinctive than someone’s voice?
You and I can change our appearance from day to day, week to week, year to year. But unless we learn the actor’s tricks of accent and inflection and mimicry, the voice we’re born with is the voice we own. It marks us. It is uniquely ours.
I love the heart-rush of emotion that is triggered by a familiar, cherished voice. Just a few words from a family member or a friend can ground me – help me find my place and feel at home.
There’s been a chandelier in my attic for three years that I haven’t been able to ignore. It originally hung in the upstairs bedroom of the nearly seventy year old duplex where I live – but I’ve pictured it downstairs (in my “half”) since I first saw it.
I’ve imagined it in the entry hall, but it would have hung too low and caught the front door each time I opened it. I thought the bathroom might be fun (who has a chandelier in their bathroom?) but it would have overpowered the tiny room. Then I thought my study would be a good home, except there’s already a ceiling fan there – and it’s nice to have in summer when the midday sun warms up the windows, and the room.
Lately, I’ve been noticing kisses. No, I’m not devouring romance novels, watching the soaps, or seeing too many romantic comedies. (Although I did watch You’ve Got Mail for the umpteenth time a few weeks ago on television just because…well, just because it was on!)
Most mornings, I see moms kiss their kids goodbye after walking them to the gate of the elementary school at the end of my block. Sometimes the kids forget their kiss, and run back for it. (This makes the crossing guard’s job a little more complex.)
If I didn’t have an adorable dog of my own, I’d be amazed at how many people kiss their pets. (A kiss a day is, of course, a requirement for Chester the Japanese Chin, who came with his own “kissing spot” – a small white wisp of fur right on the top of his softball-sized head.)